Providence Web

Providence OPC is a Bible-believing congregation. We are reformed and evangelical, holding to teachings of the Protestant Reformation, as summarized in the 17th century Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. The Reformed faith pulls together the most significant doctrines taught in the Bible. Here are links to those documents:

The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Larger Catechism
The Westminster Shorter Catechism

By clicking the buttons up above, you can see shorter statements about what we believe.

The Bible is Our Final Authority

We are a church that believes what the Bible says and we try to put it into practice. We believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, and is the only source of special revelation for the church today. The Bible, having been inspired by God, is entirely trustworthy and without error.

We believe that the Bible teaches us all that we can accurately know about God and salvation. Therefore, we are to believe and obey its teachings, and are not required to believe or do anything contrary to, or in addition to, the Word of God in matters of faith or worship.

We believe that there is only one eternal God, who is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The one true God is personal, yet beyond our comprehension. He is an invisible spirit, completely self-sufficient and unbounded by space or time, perfectly holy and just, yet loving and merciful.

God created the heavens and the earth, and all they contain. He upholds and governs them in accordance with His eternal will. As sovereign, God is in complete control, yet without diminishing human responsibility.

Man is Sinful

We believe God created man perfect and good, but man rebelled against God. Adam, the first man, stood in the place of all mankind and represented those who descended from Him. When Adam sinned, all mankind became corrupt by nature, dead in sin, and subject to the wrath of God.

Man made himself the enemy of God, no longer able to please God or escape God's wrath and curse. Although man tries to be religious, his sinful nature drives him to make up religions and ways of salvation that oppose the Word of God.

We are saved by grace through faith alone. We are made righteous before God, not in our own work, but through true faith in Christ alone. "For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8,9. The Heidelberg Catechism summarizes it this way:

60. Q. How are you righteous before God?

A. Only by true faith in Jesus Christ.

Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all God's commandments, have never kept any of them, and am still inclined to all evil, yet God, without any merit of my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. He grants these to me as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me, if only I accept this gift with a believing heart.

Man's only hope was for God to do for man, what man could not and would not do for himself. To save man, and rescue him from His own judgment, God chose to come into the world by taking on human flesh as Jesus Christ. God determined, by a covenant of grace, that sinners might receive forgiveness and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God who was united to human flesh and born of a virgin, so that in her son Jesus the divine and human natures were united in one person. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and died on a cross, bearing the sins of, and receiving God's wrath for, all those who trust in Him for salvation. On the third day, Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God.

The death of Jesus on the cross was the atoning sacrifice that cleanses forever from sin, those who put their trust in Him alone for their salvation. He satisfied the justice of God, which demands that all sin be punished with death. He not only paid the penalty for sin, He took on Himself the wrath and curse of God against sin for those who believe in Him. Consequently, His resurrection from the dead has given new life eternally to His people.

He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, where He sits as Lord and rules over His kingdom - the church. He will return to judge the living and the dead, bringing His people - with glorious, resurrected bodies - into eternal life, and consigning the wicked to eternal punishment.

The Holy Spirit works in the person whom God has chosen to be His children. As men hear God's Word preached, the Spirit opens their hearts to believe. For those He chose—those He predestined for eternal life—He forgives their sin. They are declared righteous because of what Christ did on their behalf. Those who believe are adopted as God's children and are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works in believers' lives to enable them more and more to stop sinning and live according to God's Word.

Because Christians have new lives, they should live each day enjoying their Savior and glorifying God in all they say and do. Their lives should be different than those who don't believe. Each day, believers strive to keep God's moral law, summarized in the Ten Commandments. Their obedience, however, is not to earn their salvation. Their new way of life is because they love their Savior and want to obey Him.

Top